InverseExcel
by Reploid7
Summary: A young woman dreams vivid dreams of fantasy and mystery, but has resigned herself to a menial life, yet when trouble comes along, she's always the first to intervene. What'll happen when it becomes to much to handle?
1. Chapter 1

In the deepest void, where nothing goes on forever, there is a gleaming pillar of light shining against the nothing, as if to spite the its nonexistence. Atop the peak of this shining pillar, an image crafted in stained glass of a lone girl falling, or perhaps rising, with stars encircling her in varied cool color. The sky and a blue sea closing in upon each other until it becomes one in a deep nightly blue.

The pillar stood tall, as if reaching out to a sky absent in the void, but as it held itself up, a light gleamed from above and girl emerged, falling down, down, down through the emptiness. Her descent as gentle and steady as a feather as her form righted itself towards the end of her plunge. The moment her small feet touched the top of the pillar, she awakened. Vivid magenta eyes flicked all around, her head swaying left and right, observing everything and every-nothing surrounding her.

"Where...am I?" The girl immediately inquired to herself as to why she'd asked such a thing aloud. There was no one present, no one to answer. She accepted that fact fairly quickly and instead took to admiring the mural of which she stood upon, wondering how it could've been created and who made it.

 _Steel yourself…_

She gazed up from the mural just in time to pounce out of the way of a solid black creature with glowing yellow eyes. Its eye followed her movement, the creature's small body jittering as it followed her movements somewhat lazily.

 _You must endure,_

 _Be swift,_

 _And strike!_

Just as the tiny creature readied itself to leap again, a bright flash of light emerged from the mural, seeming to spook the creature, as it seeped into the surface and crawled off the peak of the pillar. From the light, three pedestals now stood, each one carrying an armament. First, a sword, the glow from the mural reflected off its blade. Second, a shield, one that could protect her from blows for a third of her body, and sturdy to boot. Third, a staff, nothing particularly deadly about it, but the rod emanating a sense of untapped power.

As the glow dimmed, the creature returned, accompanied by a few more identical creatures. Thinking fast, she rushed for the sword, wrapping her delicate fingers around the hilt and pulling it from the pedestal, holding it close to her. As the first creature leaped at her, claws ready to maul her, she took a wide swing and cleaved it in half, the heavy blade spinning her around afterwards.

As she attempted to right her balance, she felt a burning sensation in her back and retaliated with a blind swing, lopping the shadowy monster's arm off and grazing its head. Once she'd managed to steady herself and recover from the attack, she brought the blade down on the monster's head, felling it into a black mist. Just three more! One stepped forward with a swing of its claws, while another hopped into the air to maul her. The girl jumped back before swinging at the former, slashing it in the torso, her light body taking a spin once more. However, as the creatures came into her line of sight again, she used the momentum to butcher the latter monster with a diagonal strike, the tip of the blade impacting the surface and sending the shadowy figure into nothing. Lifting the blade up with a bit of effort, she lifted the blade overhead, took a step forward, and brought her mighty weapon down on the previous creature, obliterating it and leaving just one more creature left.

This time, she didn't wait for it to attack her first. She charged forth, about as well as she could with the sword in her hands, and swung her sword again, nailing it in the torso with a horizontal strike. The monster went in to retaliate as she lost her balance again and she attempted to counter with another strike, the two attacks meeting their targets. Sword against shadowy head, claws against her fair skin.

Thankfully, the last of the creatures vanished in a dark mist, joining the rest of its ilk in the nothing. She'd succeeded in her bout, but now she was left alone again. Just as she'd begun to consider how best to tend to her injuries, she noticed swirling circle of clear energy. Putting caution first, she examined it placing a single pinky within its confines and finding a gentle, relaxing sensation fill her. The stinging injuries seemed to fade away and she felt reinvigorated, as if the fight had never even occurred.

 _Impressive, but your endeavors will only continue get harder and harder…_

As she sighed a breath of relief to her newfound health, another light shined off the mural, revealing a large, ornate door. She blinked a few times, swept her amber hair out of her sight, even lightly slapped herself to ensure she wasn't imagining it. Upon confirmation, she excitedly rushed to the door.

 _But do not fear,_

 _For even in your darkest moments,_

 _Your heart will guide you to the light!_

The moment she shoved the doors opened, a flash of light poured through, brighter than all the others. She closed her eyes and shielded her face as the light enveloped her, filling the emptiness. When she opened her eyes, she found a familiar ceiling greeting her as she awoke. "Back here again," she sighed depressingly. If only her dreams could take her somewhere else.

"Whatever…" She threw her legs over the edge of her bed and stood up. "Back to work!"


	2. MenialExciting

"Sara, hurry up!"

The young woman marched hastily down the stairs of her old home, the temperature rising as she reached the bottom floor. She emerged into the living room of her house, a number of old, but well-kept sofas surrounding a round table marred by scratches and etchings in its formerly polished surface. On the walls were several family portraits, all overlooked by a pair of daggers mounted parallel of each other over a small pedestal with a picture of an old kindly lady.

She moved towards the stand with the photo and bowed solemnly. "Good morning, grandma," she greeted gently.

"Sara! We have customers, now hurry it up!"

She sighed and returned to her upright posture and headed for a sturdy, wooden door. She turned the knob and tugged on the door, meeting resistance from it as it was just crooked enough in the frame to have just enough stubbornness. She gave a mightier tug and forced it open to find her mother and a man with peach-colored locks standing beyond a counter. "Good morning, Jacob!" Sara called as she joined her mother behind the counter.

"Good morning, Sara! You're looking quite fine today," Jacob greeted in turn. This man was always dishing out compliments, not just to her, but to just about everyone. Perhaps he was just very tolerant or maybe he was simply that nice, it wasn't clear, but Sara always appreciated his presence.

"Thanks!" she responded, brushing a strand of her hair out of her eyes. "So, what are you here for, Jacob?"

"Well, I just received a message from the Orwelle Recruitment and I've decided to join the forces," he explained. "So I thought I'd come here for my own weapon. Everyone knows the weapons you make are the best!"

This came as a genuine surprise to Sara, while her mother simply brushed off the compliment with a bit of cynicism. "Why? I thought your family was against it!" She huffed half-heartedly when all he did was smile in return. "Just try not to get into trouble, okay? We're not at war yet, but knowing you and your bad luck, trouble's never far behind."

"Stop mothering him, Sara, all they'll be doing is going from Orwelle to Revenant," her mother chided as she headed through another door into a stone-walled extension of the house with a forge and a large pane of glass on one side to open and let the smoke out and submerged a bar of iron into the smoldering fires. "Besides, nobody in their right mind would incite war right now." The older woman turned to Jacob and glared at him for a minute. "You'd best watch yourself out there, though. If you go and get off by some backalley thug, I'm going to stomp on your grave!"

"Mom!" Sara shouted in disbelief.

Jacob smiled in spite of her harsh words. "Don't worry, ma'am! I won't go dying on some round trip. After all, I need to be a respected member of the army first!" His optimism was baffling to the amber-haired assistant, but it was her mother's audacity that she could never get used to.

The crude blacksmith let out a disgruntled scoff as she pulled the hot iron out of the fire. "Anyways, your weapon will take a while to be complete, boy. I assume from that naive banter that you want a longsword?"

"Yes, ma'am!" he insisted with renewed vigor. "I'd love to stay and watch, but I know you like to work in private, so I'll be going!" Jacob walked for the door after leaving some Munny on the counter. Just before he walked out, he smiled at Sara and asked, "When I come back from Revenant, wanna have dinner? Maybe something fancy?"

Her mouth turned up to a small smile as she answered, "You're paying, soldier boy! So you'd better come back with a fat wallet!"

"Get outta here already!" her mother shouted from the workroom, making Jacob jolt and trip out the door, causing Sara to laugh heartily. After he left, Sara stood at the counter, awaiting any possible customers and giving her mother a hand every once in a while with her work. It was quite a slow day, but that's what happens when tourism and merchants are few and far between. It was in the middle of summer when trade and tourism slowed down, so Sara had quite a bit of free time.

"Go and fetch us some lunch," her mother called from the workroom. "It's about that time, besides, it's not like we'll be getting anymore customers." Sara responded curtly and headed out of the shop.

-X-X-X-X-X-

Sara had headed to a small restaurant on the west edge of town, entering into cozy room with warm lighting and several tables filled up already. "Excuse me!" she walked to the front counter and asked for a few things, including a couple servings of beef tongue for her mother to go. She seated herself at a well-cleaned table just as she heard loud and mocking laughter not far from her.

"Hey, hey, don't you morons go laughing at me! I know what I saw!" an older man grumbled, wiping his drink from his lips as he two other middle-aged men guffawed and chortled at him. "I said knock it off, ya drunken knuckleheads!"

"Come on, Jeeves, you expect us to believe you saw a walking, talking duck in a waistcoat?" one of them prodded jestfully.

"I saw and I can prove it! That duck said he was heading for the chapel outside of town! We'll just go there and you dumb-dumbs will see!"

"Yeah, sure Jeeves! Maybe you need to cut down on the liquor," the other said, his laughter dying down.

The older male slammed his hands on the table and walked out of the restaurant in an outrage, leaving his two somewhat younger compatriots to come to the slow realization that he just left the bill on their shoulders to pay. It'd have been funny if it wasn't so strange. A duck in a waistcoat? Was someone just playing a prank on him? "The chapel, huh?"

-X-X-X-X-X-

After she'd picked up her order from the restaurant and paid the necessary amount, Sara took off to her home once again and entered the forge, setting part of the order on a table opposite the anvil, several tools hanging on the wall above it. "Here's your food, mom," she said.

"Thanks, Sara," her mom said genuinely. Her mom was often of a grumpy and somewhat aggressive disposition, but lunch always seemed to perk her up. She wasn't a bad person, just had a rocky personality that often times turned out-of-towners away from the shop.

Of course, having lived with this woman for her entire life, she'd become accustomed to it. Just enough so to ask, "Mom, would it be okay for me to skip out on work for the rest of the day?"

"What brought this on?" she asked.

"Well, while I was getting our lunch, I overheard some folks talking about something strange over at the chapel. I thought, since we're having such a slow day, that maybe I could go and check it out?" She looked upon her mother with eyes full of hope and anticipation. She didn't time this on accident, this was intentional. With lunch softening her mother up, and only having received a couple customers today, she might just get to go.

"Ugh, you know I hate that look," the older woman groaned in response. That was all her daughter needed to hear.

"Thanks, mom! I'll be back before sundown!" she said, her voice picking up excitement. She threw her arms around her mother, not caring for the overwhelmingly smoky scent.

"You'd best!"

Sara grabbed her lunch and stuffed it into a bag, dropping it onto the front counter before rushing up the stairs and bursting into her room. She nabbed a rather shabby emerald green and turquoise jacket and a small shortsword in in the corner of her room that was gathering dust. She didn't often get a chance to take it out of the house, as she normally didn't have that many opportunities to leave town, but now was the perfect chance.

Talking duck or not, she was going to leave her home, even if just for a little while.


	3. RumorDiscovery

Sara made her way out of town, hand resting on the pommel of her shortsword. She doubted there would be any trouble, but it was always good to be safe. Plus, she had her sword strapped to her belt! What could be cooler?

Well, probably a talking duck, but she was reserving her expectations for now. She couldn't just allow herself to assume that the duck was real. Nothing like that had ever been seen as far as she knew. Either way, she estimated her arrival at the chapel at about ten minutes or so, as she could see the building in the distance. She could easily run the rest of the way to save on time, but she seldom ever had much chance to leave town, so she wanted to savor this.

The area was filled with trees shedding leaves of warm shades and dry yellow grass bordering a thin stone path that began a few meters back. Looking up at the sky, she took notice of the clouds billowing overhead, expecting a storm soon. Even better!

As she neared the building, she began to hear voices and soon took to following them. Eventually, she heard their words clearly. "Oi, Launchpad, quit dawdling and lift that block! We need to get this vessel up and running!"

"Yes sir, Mr. McD!"

"All Gummi Blocks on my end secured!"

"Great job, Webby! With any luck, we'll have this beaut up and running again before this place goes caput!"

Sara moved around the chapel, the voices getting clearer as she got closer. The moment she turned a corner, she saw him. She saw _them!_ Oversized bipedal ducks wearing different outfits. First, there was what Sara presumed was the youngest one, wearing a pink bow and a pink and blue top with a purple skirt. Then there was the big, stout one, wearing a brown jacket with pockets to spare, a tan shirt with an orange tie hanging loosely, a pair of white pants with more pockets to spare, and a pair of black boots. Finally, there was the oldest, wearing a red, expensive looking jacket, a black top hat, and waving around a black walking cane, though from how active that particular duck seemed, Sara was willing to bet he didn't use it for its intended purpose.

As she observed them, stars in her eyes from discovering the source of the rumor, the youngest one took notice of her and spazzed out. "We've been sighted! Get down, Mr. Scrooge!" She pulled out a grappling gun and shot it at Sara, who just barely dove out of the way, the hook crashing through the abandoned chapel window. "Apprehending now!"

"For Pete's sake, Webby!" Scrooge cried exasperatedly. "I'm not payin' for property damages if you wreck this place! And stop houndin' the locals!" Webby seemed to stop and even back off at Scrooge's word just as Sara was ready to pounce out of the way of a tackle. That little one is fiercer than her cute outfit lets on.

"Excuse me, lass, but would ya mind not telling anyone we're here?" That old duck got right down to the biscuits. Business as usual in these situations, he was. "Y'see we sort of crashed our plane not far off from this area and we were hoping to have it fixed up without a fuss. It'd be hectic to have people pestering us."

Sara hadn't really realized how stunned she was by their existence until now. She stuttered a bit before clearing her throat and asked, "U-Uh...sure!" She seemed curious about them, that much being obvious to both Scrooge and Webby, while Launchpad seemed ignorantly benign as he lifted what looked like a heavy red block over to a wreckage of colored blocks. "Um, if you don't mind...Where are you from? I've never seen anything like you before. I don't get out much…"

"We're from a different land, somewhere far off from this one," Scrooge told her. "I imagine ya don't see ducks like us very much, aye?" When Sara shook her head, he smiled, seeing a bit of the people he's met in years past in her. "Well, maybe when you get tougher than toughies and smarter than the smarties in yer home, ye can try yer hand at other places."

As much as she'd love to do that, she knew she had to be there for her mother. She might seem tough and crass enough to handle a bunch of punks, but she was still getting older. Nature was starting to catch up to her. Still, the prospect of seeing other lands, especially Scrooge's, was tempting. "Maybe someday...Hey, can I help you with that?"

"Unadvisable, little lady!" Launchpad broke in, finally contributing to the conversation. "These suckers are pretty heavy."

Sara scoffed, with a smirk played across her face as she walked over to an orange, slanted block and lifted it with relative ease. "Please, I help out at a forge. I know a thing or two about lifting heavy things. So, where should I put this?"

Scrooge's smile turned sly as he pointed to a part of the wreck where a big glass pane domed over the top. "Right there, in front of that block!" he instructed, moving to grab another block. "Webby, ye set the traps?" he asked the young duck.

"Yes sir! Not many Heartless will be getting to us any time soon, Mr. Scrooge!" she replied. "I left only one path open so that we can get around."

"Ah, that explains why this lass hasn't fallen in any, and how fortunate that is."

Sara raised a brow as she set the block she was carrying in place, the orange and red domed block seeming to fuse into each other at that moment. "And...why is that?"

"Because Webby's traps typically either hogtie the victims or drop them into spike pits," he answered.

A chill ran over Sara's spine as she was informed of such a fact, realizing that she could've been offed if she took one wrong step. "A little hardcore, don't you think?"

"No mercy for the Heartless!" she responded with a deep, faux baritone voice.

"The Heartless?"

"Nasty little beasties that pray on anything with a heart," Scrooge explained. "They typically come in numbers, but it seems there aren't that many in yer land. Pretty impressive." She felt like there was more to it, but Scrooge didn't continue beyond that, so she kept her trap shut and continued assisting with their...whatever it was.

With her help, the craft was soon all fixed up, more or less, and Webby, Launchpad, and Scrooge started boarding it. "Well, it was nice meeting ya, lassy. We've gotta be off, but it was a pleasure getting yer assistance. Here, a token of gratitude." He pulled what looked like a card from his jacket and handed it to her. On it was a colorful image of a town with the words Disney Town Lifetime Pass. Maybe that was where Scrooge was from? "Fer when ye finally see new places, Ms…"

"Sara! It was nice to meet you too, Mr. Scrooge!" she replied with glee. "I hope I'll get to see you again soon. You too, Webby, Mr. Launchpad!"

"Bye…" Webby replied uncertainly.

"See ya later, Missy!" Launchpad added from the cockpit.

The door closed up and the craft soon roared to life, urging Sara to step back and watch as it took off into the sky and disappeared in a flash. "Wow!" When she heard the rumor of a talking duck in a coat, she was likely expecting a somewhat bigger than average duck and some trickster pulling a ventriloquist act, but this was far more amazing than she could find words for. However, there was one thing she could find words for. "Another land? Nice try, Scrooge! You're from another world!"

/

 **Author's Notes:**

 **So, when I was making this, I was curious as to whether or not I should go with the original Ducktales Scrooge or the 2017 Scrooge, but in the end, I went with the remake. I have more love for it, since I've never seen the original show, plus, you can just say that Scrooge, Webby, and the others grew into their 2017 personas as time in the KH franchise went on.**

 **Anyways, I had originally planned to have Sara be found by the three after falling into one of Webby's traps, but for some reason, I decided to just have her come upon them.**

 **Also, if you're wondering how she knew Scrooge was from another world, well, she wasn't born yesterday. She knows that giant, bipedal, talking ducks don't naturally exist in her world. Plus, if three kids can realize that there are other worlds simply because one girl suddenly appeared in their town, then seeing talking cartoon ducks would probably tip off an older person much easier.**

 **Also, I apologize for the slight delay on this chapter. I and a number of friends started up a Zelda/BotW DnD homebrew last week AND I had to house/petsit for my older sister while she was out of town over the weekend.**

 **Anyways, that's it for now.**

 **Reploid7, Signing Out!**


	4. HeartlessLively

"I saw something from another world," she thought giddily to herself as the young woman retraced her steps to avoid falling into Webby's traps...wherever they are. She circled around the chapel and prepared to travel back to town. As much as she wanted to tell her mother about what she saw, she promised Scrooge she'd keep her lips zipped, plus it's not like she'd believe her.

"I hope we didn't get too many customers while I was gone," she thought aloud. She could admit the oddity of hoping that their shop didn't receive a surplus of potential profit. However with the smith being understaffed, one to handle the forge and one to handle the counter, it wasn't an unfounded concern.

She soon dashed those concerns, claiming herself as paranoid. They've only had Jacob since she left, so what does she have to worry about. Something shuffled out of the corner of her eye, drawing her attention only to find nothing but a bit of brush shuffling near the woods. "Animals, apparently," she answered herself, with a slight laugh.

Continuing onward, however, she found that there was more movement in the bushes and dark forms moving between the trees, raising a bit more worry. Sara pulled her sword out of the scabbard just in case. She was certain that predators in the surrounding woods wouldn't attack people on the path, but there was always the chance for exceptions.

She eyed the woods to her sides, her front before finally turning around to look behind her, finding something familiar and definitely _not_ an animal, as far as she knew. A solid black creature, about a foot tall with two antennae, sharp claws, and glowing yellow eyes. It was quickly joined by two more creatures, one wearing a helmet on its head and an emblem on its chest. "These things are real?" she shouted in surprise. "What the heck are they?"

It was then she really took an extensive note of the emblem the one in the helmet wore, the emblem resembling the symbol of a heart. Never in her life had she ever seen anything like this before, as was the case with Scrooge and the others. Meaning it either didn't exist in her world until now or it was so few in number that she had little opportunity to notice them, of which she came to a conclusion. "Are these the Heartless they were talking about…?"

Before she could mull things over, one of the solid black ones leaped forth and swung its claws at her, but she managed to jump back. "Hey, watch it! Nasty little thing!" She took a wide swing with her shortsword and slashed it across the chest, pushing it back. Another of the creatures pounced at her, but she swiped the blade out at it, cleaving it through in the middle of its leap just in time to see the armored one rush towards her and claw her shoulder.

She let out a yelp and retaliated with a downstrike, lopping its arm off as it tried to flee. "Yep, let's go with Heartless!" As it moved around, she chased it down and managed to take another couple of swings at it, taking its head off. The creature burst into a dark mist, just like the beady monster she took out midleap. All that was left was on more… "Hey, where'd it go!"

Her eyes shifted all over the area, looking for the black monster. This thing was incredible at hiding away. It was only until she saw two glowing yellow orbs in her shadow that she realized where it was, the little Heartless leaping out from the shadow and taking a swipe at her chest.

And then it burst into nothing, destroyed by someone else.

"First time fighting Heartless?" The first thing she saw was the weapon. It was, like a number of things today, nothing she'd seen before. At the top of a long list of things, the most glaring thing about it was that it looked like, well vaguely, a key. The shaft of the weapon was black with an entwining golden trail, stars lining it up to the head of the weapon, which was gold with a sun tipping the head, a star with purple accents as the teeth of the key. The handguard was purple with a golden star connecting it to the shaft. "Hey, hey, my eyes are up here."

The one holding the strange weapon had dark skin and stood just a few inches taller than her. His hair was black and shaggy and reached his shoulders and his eyes were a pale orange, much like the leaves shaking off the trees. His smile was amiable and lively, offering some levity to the conflict that had just passed. "So, is it normal for people around here to walk around alone?"

She looked at him, baffled by his entrance. "Who are you?" she asked him. "What is that weapon? Do you know about those things?" She was coming down from an adrenaline rush she didn't even realize she had going. "Are you from another world too?"

"Woah, woah, let's slow down for a second. We should probably get to a safe place first," he interjected.

"O-Okay, follow me then. My home isn't that far off from here," she answered, walking ahead of him. "So...what _is_ your name?"

"Oh right, my name! Call me Kenka!"

 **Author's Notes:**

 **Aye-yi-yi! I was hoping to make this a bit longer, but it came out shorter than I'd been hoping. Maybe I should've thrown a Large Body at Sara instead of those weaksauce Shadows and Soldier.**

 **Oh well! Either way, we're one chapter away from getting a move on.**

 **And if any of you are wondering if World Names are going to be a thing in this, they are. You'll learn the name of Sara's home soon, don't you worry.**

 **See you guys next week!**

 **Reploid7, signing out!**


	5. Peace Betwixt Battlefields

The fires of the forge had long since died out and the shop was quiet and still when Sara came rushing in with the strange warrior, Kenka. "Mom! We've got a guest!" She prepared herself for questions, a bit of shouting, maybe even a lecture, but she got nothing in turn. "Mom? Mom, where are you?" She received a distinct lack of noise in response. Turning to Kenka, she said, "Wait here, I'm going to go look for her."

"Alright, don't trip or anything," he told her. Odd warning, but maybe it was just a passing bit of small humor. Sara ignored the forge, as her mom typically only went in there for work, and it had just passed closing time. She stopped, however, as she was about to enter the living room and moved back to the shop entrance. "Huh? What's up?" Kenka asked.

Sara exited the shop only to turn around and look at the open/close sign they flipped over whenever they opened or closed the shop respectively. It still read "Open" for any civilian to see. Her mother never flipped the sign late, let alone forget to flip it at all, even if she was starting to get older. She re-entered the shop quickly and rushed past the dark-skinned warrior and moved to open the door to the forge, only to find that the window was shattered and the forge was a mess of long-since died out cinders and firewood. The bricks and even the iron furnace riddled with claw marks. "Mom! Mom, where are you!" Sara shouted as loudly as she could, her tone reaching the height of fear. "Kenka!"

At the sound of his name, and likely the moment he heard the deep-seated, overt concern in her calls, Kenka rushed to the forge and looked around, letting the dark, disturbing implications of the scene sink in before he stated, "Heartless." That one word. That one word that she only just learned today nearly served as the trigger that would shoot her heart to pieces. Then, she had a glimmer of hope.

"But, there's no body or anything, maybe she's alright!" she suggested. Kenka looked her in the eyes, wondering if he should tell her the truth or not. Before he could come to a conclusion, however, the screams of a number of people outside caught their attention. The two rushed out, only to find that Shadows and Soldiers and even the odd Large Body were attacking the townspeople. The sky had darkened immensely and it seemed like there was a vast void in the center of it, whipping up the winds erratically like a storm. "What's going on?"

"Oh no! They got to the Heart," Kenka growled, summoning his weapon. "Draw your sword, Sara! We need to save the townies!" With no more words to spare, he leaped into battle, swiping his weapon down into the back of a Large Body, cutting a huge gash into its back before hacking at it again on landing, ending it quickly.

Spotting a number of Shadows and Soldiers pursuing a mother and her child, he quickly raised his blade, a light shining along its edge as a strange barrier surrounded them, just in time to block a powerful bolt of lighting that struck the barrier and the Heartless surrounding it, triggering an explosive burst of energy from the barrier brought on by the lightning. The Heartless were completely obliterated and the woman and her boy were safe, for now.

Sara was having a harder time than Kenka, of course, as he clearly had experience in handling these guys. She swung her shortsword through a Shadow and cleaved it in half, only to get clawed in the back by another one. She lops that Shadow's head off and then promptly gets kicked to the ground by a Soldier. As she attempts to pick herself up, she saw an old man in the distance, the one from the restaurant, get struck by a soldier, its red claws sinking deep into his chest, ripping out a crystalline heart-shaped apparition, which then gave way to another Shadow, the old man vanishing completely as the black creature took his place.

It was at that moment that it all dawned on Sara. Her mom was gone, the wrecked forge and the lack of a body didn't mean she was fine, it meant she probably became one of these things! Her heart sank as far down as it could go, her energy faded, the color drained out of her face. She didn't move, she didn't even think of moving. How could she?

"Hey! Lousy place to take a nap, don't you think?" the voice of her friend drew her eyes behind her, snapping her out of her funk for a moment, just in time to see Jacob standing before the dark mist of a freshly destroyed Soldier Heartless. "Come on, that guy fighting off these black things is gathering everyone to the center of town. We need to go!" He grabbed her arm and hoisted Sara to her feet.

She didn't object at all, in fact, she was too focused on him to really think of a reason to. With him running, she had no choice but to keep up with his pace, as he kept a tight grip on her arm. The two managed to make it to the town square just in time. As they rushed towards Kenka, the sight of the Heartless closing in more and more started to fill the emptiness that she'd grown. Anger.

"Alright everyone, keep close to me!" Kenka shouted above the chaotic panic of the small crowd of survivors. He twirled his weapon in hand and shot a beam of light from it, summoning an archway made of a bright, vibrantly glowing light. "Everyone, hurry up and step into the corridor! It's the only way to safety!"

Though the crowd hesitated at first, the sight of the Heartless pressured them to running in without a second thought. Everyone except Sara, who rushed at the crowd of Heartless, ready to strike at the first one she could rip her blade into. However, Jacob tightened his grip on her arm and struck at the base of her neck, knocking her out cold.

"Woah, pretty harsh," Kenka said with a bit of a nervous edge. Jacob ignored him and carried her into the corridor, with Kenka following close behind. The corridor of light closed behind them, allowing them to travel away to a safer place. A place of better comfort and warmth. Somewhere closer to the light.

All the while, Jacob looked over the crowd walking nervously through the bright realm, only to find one person missing. He nudged Kenka and asked, "Do you see a woman in the crowd? Starting to get old, wearing an apron with ash on it, maybe?"

Kenka looked over the crowd himself before shaking his head. He nodded to Sara, who Jacob was no lugging over his shoulder. "Her mother, right?" Jacob confirmed his suspicions and he looked disheartened. "She's probably a Heartless now. Those black creatures, they're the Heartless. Embodiments of Darkness, they feed on the Hearts of people and even worlds if they can find it first. They found yours…"

Jacob's eyes widened and he looked back, stopping in his tracks. "The heart of a world? Does that mean that…?"

"Yeah. That's right…" He let out a deep sigh before finishing, "Your world is gone."

 **/**

 **Author's Notes:**

 **I'd like to start these notes by apologizing for being a bit late with this one. I don't have a regular schedule etched out, but I still feel as though this final chapter in the introduction of the fic came just a bit late.**

 **By the way, the title of the chapter is literally the name of Sara's homeworld. At the start of each new world's arc, I'll be titling the chapter after the name of said world. Every other chapter will have the usual polar opposite deal which is** ** _supposed_** **to be separated by two forward slash marks, but just doesn't like anything other than regular letters or numbers to be in such things.**

 **Also, I feel I must warn you guys, the world selection for this fic is going to have a few Dreamworks worlds mixed in. I've just always loved the idea of a Trollhunters, Voltron, and How to Train Your Dragons selection. There will still be Disney Worlds in there, of course, don't you worry. It's just that I would love to try my hand at Dreamworks.**


	6. Traverse Town

After walking for about a half hour, another corridor opened up in the vibrant realm between. Kenka, having used his keyblade to open it up, ushering the crowd through it. "Alright, we're here everyone!" he announced, the bright, empty realm giving way to a small town with neon signs everyone and arrows pointing in different directions. "Welcome to a new world, everybody!" he declared to the crowd.

The crowd of survivors spread out a bit, eyeing the surroundings, some were shaken, others were in awe. Sara simply walked towards one sign in particular and read the contents aloud. "Traverse Town...Home of the Lost and Found?" she recited. A man came over, a young boy accompanying him, catching her attention. "Excuse me, do you live here?"

"Yes, that's right. My name is Geppeto, and this is my son, Pinnochio," he replied, gesturing to the boy.

"Nice to meet ya!" the boy greeted cheerily.

"What is this place?" she asked.

"This is Traverse Town, a place where poor souls that have lost their worlds come to seek shelter," he answered somberly, already having an idea as to the devastation that must've befallen this young woman and the rest of the new arrivals. "I know it must be hard, leaving your world behind, but you're safe here," he assured her. "You'll all be given homes soon enough."

Sara frowned as she felt an emptiness in her heart, a hole that was momentarily filled with anger, but now there was nothing. "Thanks for the info, Gepetto…"

Jacob looked across the square to Sara and shuffled through the crowd, gripping her hand tightly the moment he was close enough. He tried to find the right words to try and comfort or uplift her, but fell short. Her handed tightened around his as she simmered in her sorrows.

"Perhaps, I should give you some space," Gepetto suggested. "Come now, Pinnochio." He took his son by the hand and guided him away from the two.

"But dad, I wanna talk to her too!" he objected, but he couldn't really fight his father's grip.

"Do you think you'll be...okay?" he asked her. He wasn't sure how to correctly comfort her, this was something he never expected would actually happen.

"I don't think so…" she said slowly. "Should I-?"

"She could still be around!" The two young adults looked towards Kenka, who decided he should cut in. "You couldn't find her anywhere. Sure, she could be a Heartless right now, but there's no guarantee that she is. I've seen worlds disappear before and I can say that sometimes, when people are left behind on their world, they have a chance to wind up in another world. Traverse Town is one of the more common places wayward souls wind up, but she could've wound up somewhere else too. I've been to plenty of worlds and destroyed plenty of Heartless before."

Sara looked up at him, unsure whether or not she could believe him. From what she saw of him, she could tell he wasn't lying, but at the same time... "But...what if she is?"

"If she really is...we'll mourn her loss and try to move on," he said slowly. He lowered his head in respects and waited for her answer.

She looked at him for a long time, considering things, remembering things, agonizing over everything that had happened. It was painful to keep thinking it over and over, but in the end, this was for her mother. If she really were still alive, then as her daughter, she should do whatever it takes to find her...right? "So...are we going to new worlds then?" she asked slowly.

Kenka raised his head and nodded with a small, firm smile. "Yeah! If we can't find her on this one, we'll find her on another!" He spoke jubilantly, perhaps trying to help lift Sara's spirit. "We're going to search the entire universe, if that's what it'll take!"

Sara allowed herself to smile a little, though she still seemed emotionally drained. Jacob, holding his friend tight, looked to Kenka and said, "I'm coming too! I can't just let this dunderhead go waltzing around unfamiliar places without me!" He ruffled her hair, getting a laugh and a swipe of Sara's hand to get him to stop in response.

"Sounds good to me!" Kenka said brightly. "Now, come on! Let's search the town first!"

Sara felt her heart warm a bit, a bit of hope filling the void ever-so-slightly. She felt a twinge of happiness break through her emotional wreck as she followed Kenka into District Two with Jacob right behind her. It might be a long shot, but Sara was determined to see that small possibility be real. She was going to see her mother again, no matter what!

 **Author's Notes:**

 **Sorry this turned out so short after the wait. I found difficulty trying to write Sara's emotional anguish. I'm pretty sure I wound up half-assing or even making it too short of a moment. I apologize for that and for making you all wait for this. Traverse Town won't be as long as the other worlds will be, I think, though they will be revisiting it, of course.**

 **I just wanted to give my apologies for failing to write something better to make up for the wait.**


End file.
